Strong extra curriculars, meh grades. [Stanford]

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm a junior right now, studying in Hong Kong! I'll be applying as an international student.</p>

<p>Summary of grades:
- SAT - super score 2210 (CR - 800, M - 710, W - 700).
- SAT 2s - yet to take (Probably will take literature, biology, maybe something else.)
- IB predicted - It shouldn't drop below a 40, if you add the 3 points. I'm trying to boost that to 42 right now.. On the other hand, 4 HLs - English, Economics, Philosophy and Chinese B. SLs - Maths and Environmental Systems.</p>

<p>Summary of extra curriculars:
- President, captain and coach for school debating team (silver finalist in major local tournament, coached kids to win other things) - 3 years ongoing.</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Student council president (Been involved with the student council officially for 3 years, I have tons of fun on council and I think this year has been one of the best years yet in the school's history)</p></li>
<li><p>Chair of inter-school debating organization that runs biannual charity debating tournaments - lots of involvement with different local and international NGOs, worked with Amnesty International and one or two other very prominent local charities. - 1 year as chair, 1 year as organizer, 1 year as participant :D</p></li>
<li><p>Organizer (albeit very passionate one) of a school based inclusivity group that strives for human rights / inclusiveness between LGBT, gender, racial, socio-economic etc. divides. Organized big groups for pride parades (lots of news coverage on that), run lessons for grade 9 students in school on the reality of discrimination, run an inter-school student conference inviting 4 different NGOs to come discuss with students on problems in home city, and how we can solve those problems. Been working closely with this local NGO I'm fond of who have the most warm-hearted organizers I've ever met. - 1 crazy year!</p></li>
<li><p>President of philosophy club that hosts discussions with students on philosophical issues every week - 2 years as president now, but it's floundered a little this year.</p></li>
<li><p>Member of national delegation to one of the most prestigious international public speaking and debating tournaments in the world for two years running (involved 4+ months of training one day a week for both events), probably will be helping to host the tournament next year. - 2 years.</p></li>
<li><p>Won 4-5 notable debating best speaker / winning team awards at local tournaments, ranked 4th in the world for debating at aforementioned prestigious international debating / public speaking tournament (around 200 people attended, I think?)</p></li>
</ul>

<p>"Work experience" + other things:
- Stanford EPGY summer camp two years ago for Legal Studies - Teacher said that I was one of the best students she's ever taught (don't know what that counts for)</p>

<ul>
<li>Worked as a paid intern for a month at a firm for logistics and supply chain management - totally out of character, and DEFINITELY confirmed that I don't want to settle for a paper filing desk job, ever.</li>
</ul>

<p>Next year and this coming summer, I'm planning to get more involved with NGOs around me. I think I'd like to run a simulation of some appalling housing situations in Hong Kong in school, which will be a work intensive but hopefully cool experience. I'd like to talk at a TEDx conference soon (bucket list goal!), and I hope to take up windsurfing as a hobby! I'm easing off a lot of my projects and trying to get them adopted by other people, but may leave some space for other projects. Trying to work with an organization called Crossroads that does an amazing job supplying resources to so many different locations - who knows what'll come out of that?</p>

<p>I'm really fond of the teacher I want to write my reference, she's an amazing woman (my current philosophy teacher!), and I think our conversations are pretty meaningful.</p>

<p>Stanford's a dream. I'm in love with their campus location, ethos as a school, student body.. all of it. The problem is, Stanford seems to be everyone else's dream too..</p>

<p>I've been worked to my bone and have exhausted my ambitious plans for now. For the last few months I've been focusing a lot more on myself, who I am as a person, what I believe in and where I want to go. I think I have very focused interests, but within that range I try to do a lot. I'm also into quite a lot of artsy stuff in what's left of my free time, I guess! Any thoughts?</p>

2

<p><em>casually bumps post</em></p>

3

<p>Let me just say this. On paper, your grades etc indicate that this is a reach for
you (as it is for nearly everyone) but you are still competitive. But for what it’s worth, among all the profiles I’ve read yours perhaps exhibits the most genuine passion for your activities and if you do the same on your applications and colleges really do pay as much weight to genuine passion as they say they do, you’re in. My only worry for you would be that colleges often don’t seem to care about genuine passion and it’s something that can be faked by skilled people as I know friends who did EC’s just for college and it ended up working for them (got into the best colleges in the world and where they wanted to go). Good luck to you and be proud of what you’ve done.</p>

4

<p>@theanaconda - Thanks, and I really appreciate it. Actually I hate trying to “sell” my extra curriculars because I do things I because I love doing them, not for universities. And my worry too is that if I try to be genuine, I’ll come off as pretentious and trite simply because everyone else is selling themselves as well. It’s really irritating… but what can you do :/</p>

5

<p>@13lia1‌ I feel the same way you do. My cynical self tells me it doesn’t matter whether you have passion or not but whether you can sell it or not as I’ve seen students without passion who can “sell it” be more successful than students with passion who’re not quite as articulate or capable of “selling” themselves.</p>

6

<p>@theanaconda I guess I’ll just have to not suck at articulation! And thank you for responding!</p>

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<p>(bumps)</p>

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<p>Will anyone else chance me? :/</p>

9

<p>If u hate “selling” ur ECs, that will be a bad thing. Remem, ur(everyones) ECs are a defining part of the application. I have heard they only look at the grades and scores for about 45secs, jus to see if the student is qualified to study or not. Coming back to ur ECs, it is essential that you sell it. In my case, I started a math circles in my community. Now I could either write that or I would write: I started a Math Circles in my community, which is identified as at-risk for failure in literacy and numeracy. U can clearly see the difference between those two statements. With the latter, they see that I have the leadership and the motive to solve a problem in my community and make it better. Is it the most ethical thing to do? Not necessarily, Im not lying. Use your situation to your advantage. There are many “President of Philosophy club” but there is only one “Founder of <em>community name</em> Math Circles”. But yes you do show passion, jus remem, SELL YOURSELF.</p>

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<p>What’s the point of this chance me? Stanford rejects 95% of their applicants and oddly enough, that number will probably rise. It’s a reach for everyone. Students who are more qualified than you get rejected and students that are less qualified get accepted. It’s basically a guessing game.</p>